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Sony Promises A Better Network For PS4

GTA V’s encountered some roadblocks after its launch last week, not the least of which has been the nasty issue of pop-in textures loading in real time when playing the digital, disc-free version of the game.

Speaking with Eurogamer this weekend, Playstation UK head Fergal Gara said that with the next-gen launch looming, PSN needs to be prepped so that it delivers hitch-free online performance.

Since games are getting so big, Gara said, citing Killzone’s 50 GB file size, more rigorous testing needs to be employed for digital versions of available games before release. But the growth of infrastructure is paramount, he said, because PS4 offers a lot more online functionality.

“It's got to be a compelling experience on multiple levels,” Gara said in the interview. “It's going to be for no lack of investment, for no lack of effort and no lack of intention that things might fall a bit short. But we're definitely moving in the right direction, and I'm confident we step on and understand its importance."

Given PSN’s performance versus Xbox Live’s over the past generation, Sony needs to really step up their game, though PSN has gotten markedly better in the past year or two. Gara said it’s a slow process.

“[Downloading games] is still a relatively tedious process. We've done a lot of work on pre-delivering files. It's not perfect. It's not seamless," he said. But they’re working on it.